I hate to be thought men’s property in that way – though possibly I shall be to be had some day.
Bathsheba speaks these lines early in the novel, when Gabriel first proposes to her. She wants to clarify that the reason she ran after him as he was leaving her aunt’s house was not to accept his proposal, but to explain that she does not have other suitors. Bathsheba boldly criticizes the way in which she views romantic relationships as disempowering women; she believes that when men are interested in wooing a woman, she becomes merely an object to be possessed. At the same time, Bathsheba’s comment is tempered by a pragmatic sense of reality, since she is aware she is likely going to get married eventually. Especially given that she has no economic prospects at the time she makes this comment, it seems that she will be forced to sacrifice her independence eventually.
I shall be up before you are awake, I shall be afield before you are up, and I shall have breakfasted before you are afield. In short, I shall astonish you all.
Bathsheba speaks these lines to the employees of her farm shortly after she inherits it, when she explains that she plans to play an active role in managing it. At this time, it was unusual for a woman to be directly involved in business operations, and running a farm involved a number of tasks that challenged expectations about the supposedly submissive and domestic nature of women. In particular, being an effective farmer required physical stamina and long hours outdoors, riding and walking in all kinds of weather. Bathsheba makes it clear that she is tough and self-reliant, and prepared to take on these challenges.
This was a triumph, and had it come naturally such a triumph would have been the sweeter to her for having been delayed. But it had been brought about by misdirected ingenuity, and she valued it only in the sense in which she valued an artificial flower or wax fruit.
These lines describe Bathsheba’s feelings when, after sending the valentine to Boldwood, he begins to court her. Although Bathsheba had played the prank because it wounded her vanity that Boldwood was not paying attention to her, she now realizes she is not satisfied with the results. Boldwood’s feelings come from a lie, not from a natural attraction; as a result, they implicitly contrast with the attraction between her and Gabriel, and what will happen later between her and Troy. The metaphor of Boldwood’s feelings resembling “an artificial flower or wax fruit” highlights the difference between what is natural and what is fake, especially in a novel where the natural world and cycles of life are such important elements.
This had been what she was expecting, and what she had not got. To be lectured because the lecturer saw her in the cold morning light of open-shuttered disillusion was exasperating.
These lines occur during the disagreement between Bathsheba and Gabriel at the sheep-shearing when they discuss Boldwood’s courtship. Bathsheba is annoyed because she had brought up the topic hoping that Gabriel would simply be supportive of her, or even that it would lead to him admitting that he still loves her. Her vanity and pride are hurt when instead Gabriel is honest and critical of her behavior. These lines reveal how Bathsheba takes Gabriel for granted, and sees him as someone who should be available to give her whatever she wants, whenever she wants it. When he asserts his autonomy and independence, and is not deferential to her, she feels that her authority has been challenged.
He spoke fluently and unceasingly. He could in this way be one thing and seem another: for instance, he could speak of love and think of dinner; call on the husband to look at the wife; be eager to pay and intend to owe.
These lines describe Troy’s character, revealing what is both charming and dangerous about him. Troy is very articulate and well-spoken, but his words do not necessarily reflect what he is actually feeling or thinking. In fact, he often uses his words to lie and deceive in order to get what he wants. His willingness to do so shows that he is aligned with a more urban and modern world, unlike most of the other characters. Because Troy moves around, and because his honor is not rooted in people trusting his integrity, he is much more self-serving and willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants.
Of the fabricated tastes of good fashionable society she knew but little, and of the formulated self-indulgence of bad, nothing at all. Had her utmost thoughts in this direction been distinctly worded (and by herself they never were) they would only have amounted to such a matter as that she felt her impulses to be pleasanter guides than her discretion.
These lines explain why Bathsheba is vulnerable to being easily seduced by Troy. Although she can be self-indulgent and willful, Bathsheba is still quite sheltered and naïve. She has not been exposed to the norms of a world (typically more urban and more upper-class) where she would have learned to be suspicious of people’s motives. She assumes that people around her will be basically honest and trustworthy, and thus far she has been able to get away with acting somewhat recklessly precisely because no one has been out to trick or manipulate her. In a sense, because her previous suitors (Gabriel and Boldwood) have been so forthright and honest, Bathsheba is unaware that a man might try to lie to her and trick her, and therefore she is in a very vulnerable position.
"Are you not more to me than my own light and life?” he went on - “Come listen to me! I am six years older than you, and Mr. Boldwood is ten years older than I, and consider - I do beg you to consider it before it is too late - how safe you would be in his hands!”
Gabriel speaks these lines to Bathsheba when he becomes seriously concerned that she is going to marry Troy. Gabriel is convinced that Troy is not a good man, and fearful of what may happen if Bathsheba marries him. He makes it clear that he still cares for her deeply, but his argument is not rooted in jealousy. Gabriel does not suggest that Bathsheba marry him, since he knows that he is not economically or socially appropriate as a husband for her, but he suggests that she marry Boldwood. Gabriel shows the depth of his love for her by being willing to see her married to another man, if he thinks that man will be a good and trustworthy partner to his beloved. In a novel where so many characters behave from selfish motives, Gabriel shows that he wants whatever is best for Bathsheba, even if this is personally painful for him.
The mother had been no further advanced in womanliness than had the infant in childhood; they both had stood upon the threshold of a new stage of existence, and had vanished before they could well be defined as examples of that stage. They struck upon the sense in the aspect of incipiency, not decadence.
These lines describe what the bodies of Fanny and her baby look like when Bathsheba opens the coffin and sees them. Hardy suggests that Fanny resembles the infant in that she also appears childlike, innocent, and beautiful. This description would have been somewhat shocking to Victorian readers since at this time a woman who, like Fanny, engaged in sexual activity outside of marriage and gave birth to an illegitimate child would have been considered sinful and corrupted. In many other novels and works of art, the “fallen woman” would be depicted as hardened, ugly, or somehow damaged. By showing Fanny as a beautiful, innocent victim, Hardy challenges this perspective.
She was aggrieved and wounded that the possession of hopeless love from Gabriel, which she had grown to regard as her inalienable right for life, should have been withdrawn just at his own pleasure in this way. She was bewildered too by the prospect of having to rely on her own resources again: it seemed to herself that she could never again acquire energy sufficient to go to market, barter, and sell.
These lines describe Bathsheba’s unhappy reaction when Gabriel tells her he plans to leave England and move to America. They make it clear that Bathsheba has been enjoying knowing that Gabriel loves her, even if she never planned to return that love, and that she takes his faithful and supportive presence for granted. The quotation also highlights how Gabriel is both emotionally and pragmatically important in her life. Not only does she enjoy being the object of his adoration, she has become dependent on him for all of his help running the farm. These lines represent a pivotal point where the proud, stubborn, and independent heroine realizes that she does not want to be alone and without a partner.
Theirs was that substantial affection which arises (if any arises at all) when the two who are thrown together begin first by knowing the rougher sides of each other’s character, and not the best ‘til further on, the romance growing up in the interstices of a mass of hard prosaic reality.
These lines describe the type of love that Bathsheba and Gabriel finally recognize as existing between them. What makes their relationship somewhat unique, especially for this time period, is that they spend years getting to know each other as friends and colleagues, with shared interests and goals. At a time when men and women still largely led separate lives and often only spent a short and constrained time getting to know each other before getting married, Bathsheba and Gabriel have been able to truly know and understand each other's character before getting married. The implication is that they are much more likely to have a happy marriage as a result.
